Young author from Branford fits writing into busy college schedule

Published
8:37 pm EDT, Sunday, October 13, 2013

Evan DeCarlo talks his book

Media: New Haven Register

BRANFORD >> Evan DeCarlo spends his days at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan learning how to write scripts, then each night when his socializing and homework are done, he goes into author mode and writes at least 2,000 words.

After all, DeCarlo has a fan base to please.

At only 19, DeCarlo has a published novel, “The Children of The Noah-Book I: The Barren Earth,” and has almost completed a sequel, “Children of The Noah: City of The Star Gods.” There will be a third novel in that series, he says. He also has two other projects in the works, “Roland’s Milky Way,” a novel about the transition from middle school to high school, and “The FarAway,” a book of short stories and poems.

In his spare time, he writes limericks.

“It’s an excellent piece of work,” his former teacher at Wightwood School, Melinda Alcosser, said of the first novel. “We (his teachers) always knew he’d be an author, but not this soon.”

Photo: Journal Register Co.

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(Melanie Stengel — New Haven Register ) Author, Evan DeCarlo, on the steps of the Blackstone Library. DeCarlo was there giving a talk on his new Book 10/12.

(Melanie Stengel — New Haven Register ) Author, Evan DeCarlo, on the steps of the Blackstone Library. DeCarlo was there giving a talk on his new Book 10/12.

Photo: Journal Register Co.

Young author from Branford fits writing into busy college schedule

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Proving that it hasn’t all gone to his head, DeCarlo said during a reading and book signing Saturday at James Blackstone Memorial Library, “This is all very humbling for me.”

The first novel is crisply written and filled with adventure, science fiction and mystery. There’s time travel, robots and even a young man’s crush on a girl. The main character, Franklin Freeman, is tasked with preventing the apocalypse by any means necessary and his companions on the mission keep it interesting.

“I wanted to write something that would be meaningful to me,” he said. “It’s a book for kids to connect with another world.”

DeCarlo actually started the book his senior year at Hopkins in New Haven, on a day he got to school early when there was a snow delay and he was feeling bored.

He put the writing aside and picked it up again months later while traveling in Scotland. He finished the novel during freshman year of college, saying the catalyst for doing so much writing was the huge transition from small-town Stony Creek to Manhattan.

It’s easy to trace where DeCarlo gets his storytelling ability.

His dad, retired Branford police Chief John DeCarlo, now a criminal justice professor at the University of New Haven, read to him every night — “long after I was too old to be read to ,” Evan DeCarlo said with a warm grin.

John DeCarlo sometimes read to Evan for hours, using the voices of Richard Harris, James Mason, Gregory Peck, Orson Welles and other famous people for the different parts in classic pieces of literature.

“I’d have to say, ‘Dad, we have to go to bed now,” Evan DeCarlo said.

He also spent hours writing poetry and other pieces with his mom, Catherine Sullivan DeCarlo, a former Register reporter and now vice president of admissions and marketing at Chapel Haven, an award-winning school for young adults on the autism spectrum and with other developmental disabilities.

The first book is making its way into hands at area schools and libraries, where Evan Decarlo will also make appearances. Rachel Rice, East Haven High School Library media specialist, said her Library Student Advisory Board is beginning the novel.

“The fact that’s he’s close to the students in age will hopefully inspire them to follow their passion, whatever it might be,” Rice said. “We are excited to hear about his writing process and are equally impressed that he published a book at such a young age.”

Evan DeCarlo, who has also done a lot of acting, said his ultimate goal is to tell stories, whether through screen writing, novels or even acting in “Madison Square Park, with a donation bucket.”